Linguswamy is back with another commercial cocktail with two cool dudes and two gorgeous gals as the lead characters. Lingu is known for his fast, swift and hard-hitting action screenplay which is coated with good technical aspects and wonderful songs. The coming back of Madhavan with Lingu is much awaited as their last film "Run" was a huge hit in those days and can be considered a cult classic for action films. Here they anticipation is further pulled upwards with the inclusion of Arya as well and Lingu's last, "Paiyaa" was a big hit. Are there chances for Linguswamy manage to pull of back-to-back hits, as the trailer of "Vettai" was promising?
One positive aspect of the film is the strong characterization of the lead artistes roles. First of all, Madhavan must be applauded for accepting a role which portrays him as a coward and that too with a upcoming hot star with him! He got his comic timing checked in, with cute expressions and his trademark smile as well. Besides that, he carried the changeover from the first half to the second half very well, and there were no hesitations on his side. Its good to see him play lighthearted roles in multi-starrers once again, but he has to keep his weight and physique in check. He is not really in shape and it actually contradicts the energy and vigor projected by him for his character in the second half. Other than that, he is good as usual. The real scene stealer is Arya. Though the trailer projected him as a loud and noisy character, in actual fact its the opposite in the film. He plays a chilled-out, relaxed and cool dude. He has very good screen presence and his action hero image helps him to convincingly play the role. He too, scores in comedy portions with subtle and restrained dialogue delivery. Sameera Reddy has a good role to play as the bold, brave, talkative, fiery but dumb girl. Her lip sync was not bad which needed her to utter long dialogues in fast manner and Chinmayi's dubbing for her worked well again. Amala Paul was cute and lovely in her limited scenes as Arya's pair and Savitha's dubbing for her complements her looks. Ashutosh Rana was good as well and had good screen presence and expressions, especially during close-up shots, though he struggled a bit with the dialogue delivery which was little bit out of sync with 'Thalaivasal' Vijay's dubbing for him. Nasser was a scream in few scenes which he appears once in a while and his dialogue delivery with fantastic comedy timing proves the veteran is a class actor. Sreejith Ravi was fine with Akash giving him the voice in dubbing. Thambi Ramaiah too delivers in comedy sequences with his funny dialogues and his clean delivery of it. Raju Sundaram and Linguswamy too makes surprising cameo appearances in the film.
One major asset of "Vettai" is cinematographer Nirav Shah. He had a fun time shooting this film and it was evident with the brilliant shots displayed in the film. His low angles and close-ups gives the right mood and feel for the film, especially during the tense sequences. The lighting done in the warehouse fight sequence was very well done, and the fight sequence shot in the rain, was class as well. Through this film, Nirav proves that he can cope very well with any sort of scripts and the bright color tones used, like red, orange, yellow and brown throughout the film really complements the script very well. Anthony's razor cuts keeps momentum of the film very well and the first fight sequence was very well edited. Rajeevan's props were very lifelike and all the interiors of the house, police station, warehouse and etc were natural and also went along with the script. Deepali Noor's costumes were very much apt for each character (Madhavan's conservative dressing, Arya's stylish and soft colored dressing and the heroines half-sarees) and it really complements the attitude of each character very well. Besides that, special kudos to her for Amala Paul's costumes in the "Kattipidi" song. Stunts are the real highlights of Linguswamy's films and this time he has opted for stunt director Silva. The action scenes are very well choreographed and composed which gives the adrenalin-pumping feel, though it is a mildly out of logic. Logic is of course something which is not bothered of when it comes to 'masala' commercials.
"Paiyaa" was musically a huge, huge hit and expectations were sky high once again for the trio of Linguswamy, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Na.Muthukumar. Sadly the expectations were not met as the songs were not as good as their previous film. "Dham Dham" was touted to be something on the line of "Theradi Veedhiyil" song from "Run" but sadly it was way behind that chart-busting song. The picturization was cool with slow motions used at good length and many half-saree clad girls were used to bring back the feel of "Theradi Veedhiyil". "Damma Damma" is a celebratory song picturized on all four lead artistes. It was well shot inside the old Karaikudi houses, which gives it a beautiful old-school feel. "Kattipdi Enna" was picturized among swanky new buildings and Nirav's cool color tone gives the song a different feel from the other one's in the film. The low angles and camera movement was creative. "Pappappa" is just another fast-numbered folk song and was picturized in a regular way with dancers dressed in fanciful costumes. Besides that, Amala Paul gets to show her glamorous side through this song. "Thaiya Thakka" was shot on both Sameera and Amala clad in half-sarees throughout, with wonderful rural landscape used in the background. Yuvan's background score too was not up to the mark, with the loud trumpet noises used throughout, bringing in a deja-vu feel.
Linguswamy's script are always taut, racy, pulsating and simple in manner but what adds additional strength is Brinda Sarathy's dialogues. Brinda's words are simple and stylish at the same time, which enhances the action mood of the script very well. Though the script has a very thin story-line, Linguswamy manages to keep the attention of audiences with interesting knots in the screenplay for instance the kidnapping scene and the child rescue scene. Also, he incorporates cute and humorous scenes which are light in manner. Example is the 'Thank You' scene which evokes laughter from all. Not to forget some good action scenes, Arya's encounter with the villains during a blood donation camp scene and Madhavan's "shutter" scene was racy and engaging. The film threads on the same line as Linguswamy's previous Vishal starrer "Sandaikozhi" with traditional Karaikudi houses, many shots taken in bright day time, the earthy and warm color tone throughout and a simple storyline. Although having simple story-lines is a welcomed move, the ending should not be too simple, as it was a little abrupt with this film and during post-ending credits, we are shown several scenes which should have been incorporated earlier to have a smoother ending.
In conclusion, "Vettai" is a simple, neat and lighthearted commercial action film which is a good time-pass film, especially during the festive holiday periods.
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Nanban, is a much awaited film by all circles for a few reasons. First, its the coming together of Vijay and director S.Shankar for a film. Second, its the remake of 3 Idiots which is one of the biggest blockbusters in Indian cinema history and considered a classic. Third, its a multi-starrer film and the final reason is for having the top technicians of the industry involved in this film. Many film enthusiasts were eager to catch this film in theaters to see how the remake was done and that too by S.Shankar, who is handling a remake subject for the first time in his career. Did the movie live up to its original or falter in the heavy expectations?
The best aspect of Nanban is the near-perfect casting. Vijay as Panchavan Parivendhan, was a throwback to his earlier cinema career. His commitment to the character is unquestionable and he delivers exactly what was expected of him. He didn't imitate what Aamir Khan did in the original and kept his own style of dialogue delivery and expressions. Its been ages since he did such a role of the quiet, charming guy who can win hearts with his mellow and restrained performance. Srikanth is a revelation and this movie is a proof that he has indeed matured into a fine actor. As the narrator of the plot, his dialogue delivery and dubbing was essential in capturing the attention of the audiences, and he did it neatly without copying any mannerisms of R.Madhavan. Besides that, he scored in the emotional scene which takes place between his character and the father. Jiiva shows his great acting capabilities with very good comedy timing and dialogue delivery and also for scoring in emotional scenes. He pulled it off with ease and his confidence in enacting the roll is obvious throughout the film and is on par as Sharman Joshi. Veteran Sathyaraj had a once-in-a-lifetime kind of role here as the dictatorial and ruthless principal shows that experience does matter in pulling of great roles. Its a welcome relief to see him not to imitate the fantastic Boman Irani but could have avoided following the same type of dialogue delivery style as Boman's and incorporated his own style, which could have given a new dimension to that character. Sathyan delivered a comical role very well and his interpretation of the character was different from Omi Vaidya as his was more loud and full of expressions. The best of his was definitely the speech giving scene, which was a scream! All the other male artistes like Manobala, SJ Suryah, Vijay Vasanth, Shanmugasundaram, Indrans, Ajay Rathnam and etc were apt for their roles. As for the female roles, its wonderful to see Ileana D'Cruz back in Tamizh cinema after 6 long years! The experience of appearing in multiple Telugu films is evident in her confident manner of acting and she got her pronunciations nearly perfect with the dubbing of Andrea Jeremiah for her. Not only performance, she does sizzle in song sequences as well. Anuya Bhagat was neat as the pregnant sister of Ileana and Deepa Venkat's dubbing for her was very much in sync.
Technically the film is rich with top class technicians involved. Pritam and Resul Pookutty's audiography was creative with various sound sequences used, especially in songs and climax portions. Kunal, Deepali Noor and Sai's costumes were colorful especially for Ileana in the "Asku Laska" & "Irukaana" numbers, though they could have experimented more with Vijay's costumes and look, which was rather plain and simple compared to the stylish and cute Aamir Khan in 3 Idiots. Anthony's editing was fine, though he could have trimmed few minutes of certain sequences to shorten the duration of the film and his work in "Asku Laska" song was high in quality. T.Muthuraj's art work was apt as all the props used in the film was natural especially for the university sequences and also for the detailing done in the house interiors of each character was very good. Besides that, its applaudable to erect detailed sets in a very small area for the "Irukaana" number. Manoj Paramahamsa once again proves why he is one of the best in the industry among cinematographers. His shots were a pleasant sight for the eyes especially in the "En Friend eh Pola" and "Asku Laska" numbers and also for the soft, natural lighting he used in the university sequences. Besides that Gemini Industries & Imaging's work done on the uncompressed 4k real-time on Quantel Pablo DI (Digital Intermediate) system gives the film a fantastic picture clarity with 4K digital resolution.
Harris Jeyaraj's music was melodious all through and there were no racy numbers in the album with the whole album complementing the mood and feel of the film. "En Friend Pola" number was picturized in montages with a road-concept as similar to the opening song in 3 Idiots. The picturesque hill stations were wonderfully captured by Manoj with long shots and post-card style frames. "Heartiley Battery" number is the equivalent of the extremely popular "Aal Izz Well" number of 3 Idiots. Though its less peppy and energetic as the original song, it still enthuses mild energy and was well picturized with good choreography by Shobi and cute ideas such as the 'Vadai' element and etc with the whole song taking place in cool university surroundings. "Asku Laska" had a cute sequences in between where the camera panned from the production crew and straight into the song which was a surprise for the viewers. The top angle and close up shots in the song helped the song look rich, especially in the glass set. "Nalla Nanban" is a situational song which was shot with montages which had a mishmash of cute and emotional scenes. "Irukaana" is a song dedicated to the svelte physique of Ileana and is a typical S.Shankar film song with elaborate and intricate and colorful set works which also has dozens of dancers. The camerawork is commendable as it involves a tight space and Manoj has captured the splendor and grandeur of the set work for this song, well. Besides that, the choreography of Farah Khan was catchy, too. "Endhan Kann Munnae" is the pathos song which was picturized on the sadness of Vijay Vasanth's character. It had good lighting work to show the night effect feel. Though Harris' work was neat in the songs department, his background score could have been much better as the re-recording was too melodious which gives a sentimental feel for certain scenes which could have been avoided. The usage of silence in certain scenes would have elevated the feel and intensity of those scenes.
For film enthusiasts, this movie might be a little disappointment because it was just a scene-by-scene remake and there were not much differences in the screenplay of the original 3 Idiots written by Rajkumar Hirani, Abhijat Joshi and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, which was based on Chetan Bhagat's novel "Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT". As a grand filmmaker himself, S.Shankar could have tried to infuse new and fresh elements into the film instead of remaking all scenes one by one but he can be excused since the original screenplay and script is a classic and it can be very risky to experiment with. Dialogues by S.Shankar and Madhan Karky was fantastic and very quirky and intelligent but at the same time, heart-warming. The speech dialogue spoken by Sathyan was absolutely hilarious and kudos to both Shankar and Karky for giving extra intuitive attention for comedy portions as well. The whole film carries breeziness, intelligence and emotions all into the right proportions which is a winning factor for the film crew.
Nanban did live up to its original and the remake was done in a very neat and proper manner with no mistakes or blunder made. Whether the original was much better, or the remake is a finer product, is something which should be left to each individuals as it is a matter of personal preferences. Final verdict: Nanban - All is Well, indeed.
Ratings: 3.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
7AM ARIVU
- Suriya's dedication and hard work
- AR Murugadoss' basic plot and thread of the script
- Grandeur in terms of making and script elements
- Ravi K.Chandran's cinematography and Rajeevan's artwork
- Tamizh sentiments and issues being discussed.
- Anthony's editing (climax fight sequences)
- Peter Hein's stunt choreography
AADUKALAM
- Vetrimaaran's gripping script and making
- Dhanush's National Award winning performance
- G.V Prakash's foot-tapping songs
- Performance of other artistes (Jayabalan & Kishore)
- Velraj's cinematography and lighting (especially in rooster fight sequences)
- National Award winning neat and perfect editing by Kishore.Te
- National Award winning choreography by Dinesh Kumar ("Othe Sollale" song)
AARANYA KAANDAM
- Thiagarajan Kumararaja's pathbreaking script and movie making (in Neo-Noir genre)
- Hard-hitting dialogues and narrative format with beautiful framing of scenes
- Performance of artistes (Jackie Shroff, Sampath, Ravi Krishna, Yasmin Ponnappa, Somasundaram & Master Vasanth)
- Cinematography of PS Vinod (fight sequences)
- Yuvan Shankar Raja's background score
- Stunt choreography of Dhilip Subbarayan
- Praveen K.L and N.B Srikanth's editing (fight sequences)
AZHAGARSAMIYIN KUDHIRAI
- Suseendran's simple and sweet script and casting
- Baskar Shakthi's story and dialogues
- Ilaiyaraja's background score
- Humorous and simple comedy portions
DEIVATHIRUMAGAL
- Vikram's one-of-career best performance
- Baby Sarah's heart-stealing appearance and performance
- Performance of other artistes (Anushka, Amala Paul, Santhanam, Nassar, MS Bhaskar, Y Gee Mahendran, and etc)
- AL Vijay's sweet and heart-breaking script
- Santhanam's comedy sequences
- GV Prakash's melodious songs and background score
- Nirav Shah's crystal clear cinematography
- Anthony's editing (overall of the film)
ENGEYUM EPPODHUM
- Saravanan's simple and straight-forward script
- Characterization of artistes
- The thumping take-away message
- Performance of lead artistes (Jai, Sharwanand, Anjali & Ananya)
- Sathya's simple and sweet songs
- Velraj's cinematography (angles and detailing)
- Audiography by Krishnamoorthy
KAAVALAN
- Siddique's light-hearted and bittersweet script
- Vijay's subtle and effective performance (reminiscent of his beginning years)
- Vidyasagar's hummable tunes
- Vadivelu's comedy sequences
KANCHANA
- Raghava Lawrence's script (combination of horror and comedy)
- Performance of Sarath Kumar as a transexual person
- Comedy sequences (Kovai Sarala, Sriman & Devadarshini)
- Thaman's songs
KO
- Entertaining, logical and racy script by KV Anand and Suresh-Bala duo
- Performance of lead artistes (Jiiva, Ajmal, Karthika & Piaa Bajpai)
- Chart-busting melodious songs from Harris Jeyaraj
- Richard M.Nathan's landscape-style cinematography and usage of Phantom Flex (climax fight sequence)
- Peter Hein's stunt choreography
- Kiran's realistic art direction
MANKATHA
- Ajith.. Ajith.. Ajith... (Charisma & screen-presence)
- Venkat Prabhu's twist-and-turns filled script
- Catchy and cheeky dialogues
- Multiple number of star artistes
- Foot-tapping numbers from Yuvan Shankar Raja and decent background score
- Shakthi Saravanan's stylish cinematography and color tone
- Praveen K.L and N.B Srikanth's editing
MAYAKKAM ENNA
- Selvaraghavan's dark, intriguing and emotional script and screenplay
- Contemporary dialogues and hard-hitting sequences
- Powerful and knock-out performance of lead artistes (Dhanush & Richa Gangopadhyay)
- GV Prakash's chart-busting songs and wondeful background score
- Photography-style cinematograpy of Ramji
- Crisp editing by Kola Bhaskar
MOUNA GURU
- Santhakumar's thrilling and intelligent script
- Simple and straigh-forward dialogues
- Characterizations of artistes
- Performance of artistes (Arulnidhi, John Vijay, Uma Riyaz Khan & etc)
- Thaman's simple and catchy songs and effective background score
MURAN
- Raajan Madhav's thrilling script
- Neat and crisp dialogues
- Characterization of lead artistes
- Performance of lead artistes (Cheran & Prasanna)
- Padmesh's cinematography (highway sequences)
OSTHE
- Dharani's perfect commercial mass masala script
- Bharathan's dialogues
- Silambarasan's screen presence and performance
- Santhanam's rocking comedy sequences and dialogues
- Thaman's chart-busting and foot tapping songs
- S.Gopinath's perfect cinematograhpy
PAYANAM
- Radha Mohan's neat and thrilling script (infusion of comedy in serious sequences)
- Gnanavel's hard-hitting dialogues
- Performance of all artistes
- Kadhir's realistic art direction
- Guhan's effective cinematography and lighting
SIRUTHAI
- Siva's masala script
- Karthi's convincing and contrasting double-act performance
- Santhanam's rip-roaring comedy sequences
- Tamannah's glamourous scenes
VAAGAI SOODA VAA
- Sargunam's neat, thoughtful and detailed script
- Performance of artistes (Vimal, Iniya, Bhagyaraj, Thambi Ramaiah, Kumaravel & etc)
- Immense detailing in art direction by Cheenu
- Fresh tunes and wonderful background score by Gibran
- Om Prakash's cinematography and color-tone usage
VAANAM
- Krish's anthology-style script
- Though-provoking dialogues of Gnanagiri
- Performance of lead artistes (Silambarasan, Bharath, Anushka, Prakash Raj & Saranya Ponvannan)
- Yuvan Shankar Raja's background score
- Neerav Shah and Gnanasekharan's effective cinematography and angles
VELAYUDHAM
- M.Raja's commercial and sentimental masala script
- Vijay's mass appeal
- Heroines' attractive appeal (Beautiful Genelia D' Souza & glamorous Hansika Motwani)
- Santhanam's comedy sequences
- Vijay Anthony's foot-tapping songs
- Priyan's effective cinematography
- Milan's colourful and elaborate artworks (song sequences)
YUDHAM SEI
- Mysskin's gripping and thrilling screenplay
- Strong and in-depth characterizations of artistes
- Subtle and powerful performance of artistes (Cheran, Y Gee Mahendran, Lakshmi Ramakrishnan & Jayaprakash)
- Sathya's cinematography (camera movements and tight angles)
- K's haunting background score
Noteworthy Films:
180-RULES KIDAIYATHU
- Middle class setting
- Lovely casting (Siddarth, Nithya Menon, Priya Anand, Mouli & Geetha)
- Beautiful music by Sharreth
- Wonderful cinematography by Balasubramaneim
AVAN IVAN
- Vishal's stunning performance
- A different rural- world setting
- Yuvan Shankar Raja's background score
KULLANARI KOOTTAM
- Light-hearted script by Sri Balaji
- Good music by Selvaganesh
- Decent comedy scenes
MAIDHANAM
- Realistic plot and script setting by Sakthivel
- Intriguing screenplay with good twists
- Natural cinematography by Vijay
ROWTHIRAM
- Jiiva's characterization
- Shanmugasundaram's brilliant cinematography (fight sequences)
- Anal Arasu's fantastic stunt choreography
UCHITHANAI MUKHARNTHAAL
- Pugazhendi Thangaraj's story
- Good casting (Neenika, Sathyaraj, Seeman, Sangeetha & etc)
